The
first thing to note about this verse is that EHJ reconstructed it by
working backwards from the Tibetan translation. This says something
about EHJ's facility for Sanskrit, since the verse does sound utterly
authentic and it adheres strictly to the Upajāti metre. It also says
something about the closeness to the original Sanskrit of the Tibetan
translation, confirming what EB Cowell wrote in
1894: “The
Tibetan version appears to be much closer to the original Sanskrit
than the Chinese; in fact from its verbal accuracy we can often
reproduce the exact words of the original....” Certainly,
it would be impossible for anybody, even the most gifted Sanskrit
pundit who was working back from the Chinese text alone, to
reconstruct the Sanskrit text as convincingly as EHJ did.

The
euphonic description of the Śākyas
as aśakya, impossible to vanquish, invincible or (using a bit of
poetic license) unshakable, is extended further in Aśvaghoṣa's
portrait of King Śuddhodana
in Canto 2 of the Saundarananda:

Not
eschewed by such uncommon virtues as these /

Was
he who on no side could be vanquished -- the unshakable Śākya King,
like Śakra. //
SN2.45 //

The
beautiful comparison of the King to the beautiful autumn moon, which
beams down on earth particularly brightly after the atmosphere has
been cleansed of dust by the summer rains, is also echoed in
Saundarananda Canto 2:

For
the intellectually bright, he was there; with his own
self-containment, he shone;
/

And
on people in the directed state, he positively beamed -- like the
moon in the last month of the rains. // SN2.14 //

The
point of Aśvaghoṣa's glowing portrayal of the Buddha's father,
here as in Saundarananda Canto 2, might be to manifest mindfulness
of cause and effect.

That
is to say, even though it has been said since ancient times that the
blue lotus opens in fire, the seeds of the blue lotus are nothing but blue lotus seeds.

For
people who love the blue lotus, the one great matter might be to
plant pure blue lotus seeds -- blue lotus seeds cleansed of anything
other than blue lotus seeds.

Text of Translation into Tibetan:

|
bu ram śiṅ par mthu mñam bu ram śiṅ ba’i rgyud |

| thub dka’
ś’akya rnams la spyod pa rnam dag pa |

| ’phrog byed zla ba
lta bur skye dgu rnams la sdug |

| rgyal po zas gtsaṅ źes bya’i
miṅ can byuṅ bar gyur |

EHJ's translation (from the Tibetan/reconstructed Sanskrit):

1. There was a king of the unconquerable Śākyas, Śuddhodana by name, of the race of Ikṣvāku and the peer of Ikṣvāku in might. Pure he was in conduct and beloved of his people as the moon in autumn.

Text of Translation into Chinese:

甘蔗之苗裔 釋迦無勝王淨財徳純備 故名曰淨飯

S.
Beal's translation (from the Chinese):

1.
(There was) a descendant of the Ikshvāku
(family), an invincible Śākya
monarch, pure in mind (mental gifts) and of unspotted virtue, called
therefore 'Pure-rice' (Śuddhodana).

C.
Willemen's translation (from the Chinese):

1.
The unconquerable king of the Śākyas, the progeny of Ikṣvāku,
was endowed
with virtue and pure riches, and so his name was Śuddhodana.

VOCABULARY

aikṣvākaḥ
(nom. sg. m.): a son or descendant of Ikṣvāku

ikṣvāku-sama-prabhāvaḥ
(nom. sg. m.): the equal of Ikṣvāku in might

ikṣvāku:
m. name of a son of manu vaivasvata (father of kukṣi and first king
of the solar dynasty)